Hi Forum Members,

I need your help in developing/reviewing a lesson plan for a very basic wilderness survival class I volunteered to teach to a group of 24 children.

The kids will be approximately 13 years old, boys and girls, from the inner city with very little outdoor experience. I have 3 hours to teach them the basics in both a classroom and field setting.

I have planned this so far:

- Introduction and dicussion on "What is a Survival Situation".
- Rule of "3's"(3 sec. evasive action,3 min. air, 3 hrs shelter,)
- 5 Critical Elements: Fire, Shelter, Signals, Water, Food.
- Knowledge/Experience vs Equipment.
- Field Judgement. "Common Sense" and Tell someone your plans.
- S.T.O.P - Stop (stay put), Think, Observe, Plan.
- Discussion on equipment and Exercise on the 10 essentials.
- Each assemble personal Survival Kit from prepared materials.
- Hands-on Field lesson on starting/maintaining a fire.
- Hands-on Field lesson on basic shelter building (debris-hut).
- Demonstration of field signals: mirror, fire, whistle, air ...
- Wrap-up.

I think my difficulty is that 3 hours is not enough time, but that is all I have available.

The biggest chore in this lesson was preparing the materials for 30 survival kits (e,g, cutting/rolling the wire/cord/fishing line/duct tape/thread, counting the fish hooks/sinkers, waterproofing the matches, folding the aluminum foil, etc).

Any insight you all may have would be most appreciated.

Mike